A Deafening Silence About Black Africa`s Oppressors

July 22, 1986|By C.D. Jaco, a correspondent for NBC Radio News who has covered Ethiopia and South Africa. He now works in Washington.

Among Africa`s dozens of oligarchies, dictatorships and repressive regimes, only South Africa is the focus of widespread protest. South Africa deserves all it gets. But so do other African states. The main issue should be ruling elites who oppress their own citizens, not the skin color of those elites.

It is not news that, except for Botswana, Africa is allergic to democracy. Yet black and white activists have concentrated their withering moral fire strictly on white South Africa.

It may be a necessary part of moral marksmanship to keep your eyes glued to the target. The so-called Africa lobby believes it is better to knock out South Africa with a sniper slug between the eyes than to whip out a MAC-10 and spray the Afrikaners, while also hitting the Ethiopians, Ugandans, Tanzanians and Zairians.

Call it ``The Harry Belafonte Syndrome.`` Belafonte has been in the vanguard of anti-apartheid protests. He also has been a prime mover for aid to Ethiopia. On a visit there last year, Belafonte was asked about the Marxist government`s resettlement program, during which millions of Ethiopians have been forcibly herded out of their villages.

Belafonte endorsed resettlement. He said it was none of the rest of the world`s business how Ethiopia handles its internal affairs. But he has shown no similar reluctance to criticize the crimes of South Africa`s government.

The same can be said of Edward Kennedy or Jesse Jackson or a host of others. While demonstrating vigorously against South Africa`s racists, they have shown remarkable restraint when it comes to speaking out on behalf of the tens of thousands who have died at the hands of their own government in Ethiopia, or the hundreds of thousands who died from the psychotic excesses of Idi Amin in Uganda, or the thousands who die every day across Africa because of dictators who range from the merely authoritarian to the certifiably inhuman.

The primary reason for this moral duplicity is simple. South Africa`s madness consists mostly of whites oppressing the black majority. The tragedy of the rest of Africa results from black ruling elites oppressing their own black majorities.

The scale of crimes in other African states compares favorably with the atrocity count run up by the South Africans. Take Ethiopia. The government there has refused to allow food and medical deliveries to drought-hammered areas controlled by anti-government rebels.

But the silence about Ethiopia`s crimes is deafening. The same can be said for Zimbabwe. A report from the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights accuses the Harrare government of trying to crush its Ndeble tribal minority. Amid reports of torture, slaughter and mass imprisonment, the committee`s report concludes that the Zimbabwe government`s campaign is ``scarcely distinguishable from the counterinsurgency campaign waged by the old white regime.``

Ian Smith`s Rhodesian government was condemned by activists worldwide for its policies of torture. But there is no outcry from those same activists as the black Mugabe regime of Zimbabwe engages in torture.

We hear almost nothing about torture and repression in Zaire. Torture and imprisonment in Togo at the infamous Mango prison is invisible. Tanzania`s Preventive Detention Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial, is shrouded in peace and quiet.

The tedious list could go on. Blacks who oppress their own majorities in Africa are largely immune from criticism and protest.

Not that anyone expects to see Harry Belafonte marching in front of Ethiopia`s embassy. But maybe those supposedly concerned about Africa should consider it.